AI Transforms Photography's Past and Future Landscape
The Age of AI: Saying Goodbye to the Camera?
Excited by the colossal shift in the realm of visuals that transpired around 2022, with artificial intelligence (AI) enabling the creation of jaw-droppingly real images, I found myself drawn to articles about DALL·E and Midjourney. The advent of this technology unfolded like a whisper in the ear of a comfortable artist who'd learned of photography's dawn in the 1840s, acquiring an awareness that felt fringe, demanding no action.
Fast-forward to today, and the technology behind these synthetic images has leaped forward significantly. Fred Ritchin, a noted scholar and photography critic, has penned a much-needed guide for mass visual literacy in the era of AI: The Synthetic Eye: Photography in the Age of AI.
Headlining Highlights
The second chapter, aptly titled "Toying with AI," ends with a quirky historical reference that made me smile: "Many of these early AI-generated images resemble the daguerreotypes produced shortly after photography's inception, criticized by Baudelaire and others as 'art's mortal enemy.' The naysayers were correct, as many 19th-century painters likely agreed, but also horribly wrong."
The pages of The Synthetic Eye interweave AI-generated images "created by the author via text prompts," as mentioned in the book's conclusion, made "in collaboration with either OpenAI's DALL•E or Stability AI's DreamStudio between 2022-24." Incredibly, only one, at the beginning of the first chapter, was taken by a camera—a testament to Ritchin's adventurous spirit. "With both fear and fascination," he writes, "after several decades consumed by editing, curating, and writing about photographs, I dared to experiment with generative AI systems, hoping the images produced in response to my text prompts might be more liberated and inventive, escaping some of the constraints I had faced."
The constraints Ritchin references stem primarily from photography's unfortunate inability to depict what lies beyond the frame. Modern cameras, DSLRs, photography apps, sharper lenses, and smartphone cameras have revolutionized the technology behind photography; however, its images remain indexical, a physical trace of what once was. Overcoming these barriers became possible due to the plentiful images that saturate our world.
The condemnation of images today cannot sidestep the question of unparalleled scale. It's become stylish to criticize the image surplus, a tradition that began no later than the early 1900s. Now, it's crucial to discuss the reality shaped by this incredible upsurge of images. This forms the crux of Ritchin's arguments in the final two chapters, where he advocates for "responsible AI usage" that doesn't mimic photography but rather encourages "exploration of the questions provoked by these images" and "pathways of inquiry" that AI offers to deepen and scrutinize photographic works.
One such question concerns modern warfare. As battles escalate with drones, is the war photographer's role reduced to a post-event witnessing of the trauma? If so, can a camera-made image of a desolate battlefield coexist with an AI-generated image of a bustling city as a representation of the cost of reconstruction? Will there come a time when conflict is entirely documented through AI-generated images?
As photographs shrink in number, this era of "meta-photography," as Ritchin terms it, empowers images to serve as portals—an ambitious attempt to explore what lies beyond these images. These investigations intensify the sharpest degree of their moral crossroads when it comes to suffering, pain, or imagining others. While there may be little controversy over photorealistic images of a mundane object like a cup, there are obvious uproars when fake images of high-profile figures emerge. It's not an exaggeration to argue that our compelling hunger for reality, even amidst a virtual world brimming with post-truth technologies, remains as inviolate as during the invention of the camera obscura.
Ritchin closes with a recommendation to shift focus from replacing the indexical—photographs—to using AI to explore what lies beyond photography's scope, and to make sense of the trillions of images already produced, all while assisting in conceptualizing what they depict.
In essence, Ritchin suggests that photographs will not vanish, even if their availability dwindles. It's essential to gear up for a transformative "AI era" in which the line between synthetic and camera-based images becomes increasingly blurred. Neglecting to adapt as critical, engaged observers of visual culture risks illiteracy.
In the era of AI, the line between synthetic and camera-based images is becoming increasingly blurred, as evidenced by the AI-generated images created by Fred Ritchin in collaboration with DALL·E and DreamStudio. Ritchin, a scholar and photography critic, advocates for using AI not to replace photography, but to explore what lies beyond its scope and to make sense of the trillions of images already produced. As photographs shrink in number, AI-generated images serve as portals, offering new ways to depict and understand reality. This shift challenges us to adapt as critical, engaged observers of visual culture, lest we succumb to illiteracy in the age of AI. The artist in this modern age finds both fear and fascination as they dabble in this transformative technology, questioning its impact on traditional art forms like photography.
